YOU look as good as you eat”, researchers at the University of Nottingham UK revealed in a recent study. The scientists established that eating vegetables makes you appear better looking to others.
Despite the many advantages to eating fruits and vegetables, including living longer, being smarter, avoiding chemical exposure (with organic foods), results from the university’s study claim that eating carrots, tomatoes and mangoes improves your skin and makes your face glow naturally.
But when it comes to war against poverty it is no longer a matter of having a glowing face but rather struggle for survival. Nutritionists may preach about the advantages associated with proper vegetable diet but the supply might be out of reach.
Liberate the Poor Tanzania (LPT) which is a non-profit organization working in Tanzania has taken a different approach in helping the poor. It provides services for people all over the country regardless of their race, or nationality. The organization under the leadership of committed young citizens, Mr Sadam Shayeff (President) and Buluhan Magembe, (General Secretary) realizes that poverty is number one challenge facing humankind as it brings social division, social unrest, and disharmony and hence high rate of crimes.
“Poverty affects not only the poor but rather the whole community and not only poor regions but the entire country. Studies by economists have shown that unless the real causes of poverty are uprooted, its eradication might not be achieved conclusively,” Shayeff says.
The interesting part of LPT is a steady community-oriented approach in doing research no matter how simple it might be, but well focused to understand the actual needs of the community. This is done basically for two reasons; first to offer the right support to the needy and secondly give “efficient tools” to fight poverty in a sustainable manner.
In this regard, LPT reached out villagers of Kisemvule on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam along Dar – Lindi road. The locality is in Mkuranga district, Coast region. It was established here that villagers wished to cultivate vegetables for family consumption as well as for commercial purposes but poor soil fertility deterred their ambition.
Quick thinking by LPT prompted an excellent idea to hold consultation with a local extension officer, Adam Rajab over the possibility to help villagers gain skills about improvement of the soil fertility. “This can be done. Under your support I can teach the villagers how to make compost manure as the lesson is easy for them to understand.
They will be able to improve the crop yield, free from industrial chemicals,” said Rajab early this year. Permission was obtained from the local authorities that also assisted in the appointment of representatives to attend the “class” and share information/ skills with others. A site was located and a shallow pit was opened. Grass which is readily available was slashed and left out to dry up.
These were placed in a shallow pit and mixed with green grass. Water was sprinkled on top and covered with soil to speed up decomposition process. The pile is left to decompose from 60 days (two months). After that the process is complete and a miracle has happened. The greyish sandy soil that appeared totally deficient in humus now looks dark and fertile rich.
Mariam Issa (38), who was among the “students” comes from a neighbouring Kibululu village in Mkuranga ward. She looks at the changed dark soil and says; “Waaoh, I never thought of this miracle before,” she exclaims. She has more; “We always think about expensive industrial fertilizers of which we cannot afford, while there is a quick, simple, cost effective and affordable process to make organic fertiliser for continuous gardening with good yield,” Mariam appreciates.
Another villager, Shaban Ashindo (58), holds a handful of darkish fertile soil and says; “why on earth do we allow wild fires to consume grass which is beneficial to our shamba work? From now on I will teach fellow villagers how to make compost manure because this will increase farm production at a minimal cost,” Ashinda explains.
He adds; “Sometimes we (villagers) need to be shown the way to fight poverty. Compost manure can end poverty at family level. This is a solution to a common cry that whatever we grow does not mature. Farming becomes an interesting activity if assured of harvests. I am extremely happy to gain this knowledge,” Ashindo says.
From the web we learn that manure is a valuable fertilizer for any farming operation and has been used for centuries to supply needed nutrients for crop growth. The use of manure has generally declined on many farms over the past 50 years due to: farm specialization with increasing separation of crop and livestock production, cost of transporting manure, which is a bulky and increased availability of high analysis synthetic fertilizers that usually provide a cheaper source per unit of nutrient than manure.
Despite these limitations, manure (and other organic nutrient sources) produced on or near a vegetable farm provide many benefits and should be beneficially utilized whenever possible. Manure and compost not only supply many nutrients for crop production, including micronutrients, but they are also valuable sources of organic matter.
Increasing soil organic matter improves soil structure, increases the water-holding capacity of coarse-textured sandy soils, improves drainage in fine-textured clay soils, provides a source of slow release nutrients, reduces wind and water erosion, and promotes growth of earthworms and other beneficial soil organisms.
Most vegetable crops return small amounts of crop residue to the soil, so manure, compost, and other organic amendments help maintain soil organic matter levels. The organization (LPT) therefore, provides help for the needy in social, economical, educational, medical, environmental and cultural fields as well urgent relief aids in case of war, natural, disasters, epidemics, famines, fire out break and similar circumstances. Donors who have extended support to LPT have never regretted as the assistance goes directly to the needy.
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